We’re all in this together’

Friday

Jan 9, 2009 at 12:01 AM

By Brian ReynoldsStaff Writer

While many students saw “High School Musical 2” when it came to theaters in 2007, students from Pickens, Fayette, Lamar and Marion counties waited until this week to do their own version of the hit musical in the Gordo Elementary School auditorium. “Time to Celebrate” is based on the Disney movie and brings together more than 120 students from the four rural counties. The multischool effort was first staged in April 2008 and was based on the original “High School Musical.” “We had such a great turnout last year, and the kids really enjoyed it,” director Bobby Jo McClure said. “We had ample opportunity to do another one.” The play picks up where the original version of “High School Musical” left off, following a group of students during the summer after their junior year of high school, as they look for summer jobs and contemplate their futures. “It has been a lot easier this year having some veterans come back, I guess you could say, and do this, and therefore we were able to pull it together in such a short amount of time,” McClure said. “What we’ve been able to accomplish usually takes other groups that do things like this months to prepare for. And we’ve done it in like four weeks maybe.” Preparations were delayed because of a playoff run by the Gordo High School football team. “Oct. 31 was out first rehearsal, but with the school here at Gordo, they were in the playoffs so long we really didn’t get started until mid-November, maybe right around Thanksgiving,” McClure said. “So we have really put this together in record time.” Korey Bellamy, a Fayette High School sophomore who plays Chad Danforth, and Dyer Jones, a Gordo High School sophomore who plays Troy Bolton, are veterans of the musical. Both students are returning to the roles they played last year, and think they can improve on their past performances. “I learned to just let loose and just be me,” Jones said. “Because the more life you put into it, the more energy you give it, the better off you’re going to be and people are going to enjoy it.” And it is not much of a stretch for Jones to get into his character. He and Bellamy are best friends, and while the two said they do not argue in real life, their onstage altercations seem very real. Jones’ onstage romance is also based in reality; his girlfriend in real life, Gordo High senior Lauren Morris, plays Gabriella Montez, his onstage girlfriend. That relationship makes the roles much easier to play, the two said. Bellamy also learned from his past acting experience. “If somebody forgets their lines, we just learned how to kind of improvise, instead of just dead air and waiting for somebody to say your lines,” he said. “So we’re kind of better at making the play flow more.” The play gives students who may not be the most athletic or academically proficient a chance to shine, said Gordo Elementary principal Lisa Stamps. “It was part of my goal to bring the arts, particularly dance, theater and music to Gordo,” Stamps said. “We’re bringing kids out into the spotlight that have not been there their whole academic career.”